ALLIGATORS ALL AROUND--Another First Grade Favorite...Sing Along!

We LOVE being UNIQUE!

Happy Friday!

Can you believe this is the last Friday in August? What a whirlwind it has been! We are off and rolling. You will find your child's first math homework page in their Friday folder coming home today. Please set aside 5-10 minutes to sit down and have them explain to you about "five crows in a row" or "five groups". We have worked hard at learning about the word "partners" in math. Check your child's understanding to see if they can explain in their words what partner are. (Hint: Partners are the 2 smaller numbers that, when added together, make the BIG GUY TOTAL!) Have your first grader tell you about food math today and making math mountains out of licorice and cereal for our "tiny tumblers"...I am also sending home their first math "Quick Quiz" from this afternoon. This, along with the homework, will help you see how your child is grasping this essential mathematical concept of seeing "partners" within larger numbers. The math homework is due by next Friday. You will also find a "Homework Helper" for Lesson 1. Next week we are off to the races with our reading curriculum and begin official spelling words, sound studies, vocabulary, and we even get our FIRST text book! We are in the big time now! The "Homework Helper" is intended as a communication tool for you to know and study your child's spelling and vocabulary words with them throughout the week to improve their reading and comprehension skills. There is no official "assignment" to coincide with the homework helper. It is only meant to "help"! You will also find in today's Friday folder our first book order of the year. If you are interested in ordering, please return your orders next week. All orders placed directly benefit our kids in room 111, so thank you so much in advance! Finally, you will find a yellow "ABC Potluck" note coming home. Next week on Friday we will be having an ABC celebration. Each child is invited to bring in a food item that begins with first letter of their first name. We have diligently been reviewing the letters and sounds and next week, right before the long weekend, we are going to celebrate with a Potluck Party. I wanted you to have the weekend to pick something up for your child, if you needed to! I will send a reminder later next week.... Has your child talked to your about their new fancy word, "UNIQUE"? We have learned about some very unique people here at Sunflower and we have learned that being unique is COOL. Invite your child to tell you about our visit from Mr. King, our visit to Mr. King's room AND our special visit from one of Ms. B's alums, Eithan K. There were some great examples of the awesomeness of being one of a kind...being, UNIQUE! Did your first grader tell you about their new fourth grade buddy? We spent our morning making new friends in Mrs. King's fourth grade class. We played a game called "Commonalities" and got to enjoy a little bonus recess with our new buddy. We will do lots of activities together throughout the year and the kids seemed to enjoy getting to know a new friend from the big kid hall. Please be sure to keep your child well-rested over the weekend. With each week, we work a little harder and they will need their STAMINA! Have a wonderful weekend together!

Happy Monday!

Welcome back to another wonderful week in first grade! I had some sleepy friends this morning! Mondays are always hard on our babies this early in the year. I know it will probably be an early bedtime tonight...for me, at least! We jumped into our Monday writing in our very FIRST journal of the year. Today's topic was their prediction of what they thought first grade was going to be like...Invite your first grader to tell you about what they wrote? What do they think about school so far? (Hint: we discourage the "B" word..."boring" YIKES!!!) Has your first grader been using or teaching you our new sign language signs that we use in class? So far we have learned over 10 signs and use them together daily. Ask your child to show you some of these signs so that they can talk to you without making any noise or interrupting! Awesome! We have spent the past week talking about how we can be a good friend and today we finished the last piece of our "Helping Hands" paper quilt with our friendship pledge on the back. As soon as I get the "quilt" assembled, I will post a picture. It will be awesome! We have some amazing friends in our classroom. This is a very special group of firsties! Please remember that you are welcome to send in an afternoon snack in with your child each day. Thank you so much to the families who have sent in extra snacks for friends who do not something. Your kindness and generosity is appreciated more than you know. How is that fundraising going? Please remember to continue selling, if you so choose. There is another incentive ticket due by this Friday to check on how many you have sold. The proceeds from this fundraiser fund our amazing PTO for the entire year and our PTO does incredible things for our kids. Thank you so much for your support. Did you child tell you about our visit from our new SRO officer today? We had a guest reader from the community come and read to us. Officer Robinson came on her birthday to read us a story and talk about her responsibilities as a Gardner Police officer. Invite your child to tell you something she shared or showed us today. I hope you find time this evening to enjoy the beautiful weather and the company of your family. Stay safe and healthy and I will be waiting for your sweet first grader bright and early in the morning!

Parents Who Were Unable to Attend Parent Night: Here is my Presentation...Hope it Helps!

Crazy Assembly Day!

Happy hump day families! We made it to midweek! Is your first grader exhausted? We are working hard at getting back into the swing of school and I see some sleepy faces in the afternoon. Please help your child find their greatest success at school by helping them stick to a good nightly routine that allows for plenty of sleep. Thank you SO much to all of my families who found the time to come to Parent Information Night last night. I had an awesome turnout and can't thank you enough for your time. For those of you who were unable to come, I wanted to let you know that starting this week we will begin an optional "working snack" time at 2:30. Your child is welcome to bring a small, healthy snack from home to get them through the last part of our day. We have a peanut allergy in our class family this year, so respect to my friend by not sending in peanut products is appreciated. A "working snack" will be a snack that the children can enjoy while we continue to work. There is not a designated time allotted just for snacks. Additionally, it is individual so you need only send in a snack for your own child. If you would like to donate additional snacks for children who may not bring in a snack, we would greatly appreciate it, but it is not necessary. Thank you so much for your understanding and support. For my parents who were in attendance last night at our meeting, our working snack was suppose to debut today but we had a CRAZY assembly that went WAY too long and we barely got back in time to go home. We will try out working snack TOMORROW!!! Finally, along those lines, your child is bringing home our annual Fundraising packet from that crazy assembly this afternoon. There is an opportunity to sell several different items and the money earned from this fundraiser is our MAJOR money maker for our amazing PTO which does so many incredible things for our kiddos. Thank you so much for your support. The information is included in the packet, but please let me know if you have any questions. I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday. Be sure to ask your child about their day. Maybe you could have them tell you if they remember what "5 crows in a row" are from math? Or have them tell you about our story of Chrysanthemum today. In writing today, we wrote about the kids in our class. Ask your first grader if they remember how many girls we have in our class family? Boys? Invite them to share with you which friend they chose to write and draw about. These prompts may help you have some good conversation at dinner tonight! Remember: bed early!! See you soon!

Parent Information Night TONIGHT!

Happy Tuesday, families! Just a quick reminder that we will be having a QUICK First Grade Parent Information night tonight from 5:30-6:00 in our classroom (111) to talk about the nuts and bolts of first grade. Please join us for a quick information session and an opportunity to ask questions. Childcare will be provided! See you tonight!

Two days under our belt!!!!

Happy Friday families!  WOW!  What a wonderful 2 days we have had to kick off our first grade year together.  I hope your new first grader is full of stories and excitement with a side of exhaustion.  Did your child come home telling you about their first HOMEWORK assignment?  Yes indeed, we have homework over the weekend.  Please help your child fill their "Me Bag" with 5 items that describe them.  We will share our Me Bags over the course of the next  few weeks as an way to get to know each other better.  Thank you for helping your child begin working on their responsibility and encouraging them to return their bag as soon as possible.  Also, please mark your calendars for next Tuesday August 18!  We will be have a QUICK Parent Night so that I can provide you with some of the nuts and bolts of first grade.  Thank you so much for making every effort to attend.  It is a great opportunity to ask any questions and get clarity before the year takes off on us.  Starting on Monday, we will begin our new Specials rotation.  Monday will be an "A" day and we will go to Music and PE your child will be expected to have safe running shoes for PE class.  Tuesday will be "B" days and we will visit Library and Computer.  Wednesday are "C" days and we are back to Music and PE, Thursday are "D" days with another visit to Library and Computer and Friday will be reserved for our new "EAGLE" day where we have a special Specials!  Enjoy your weekend together and please remember how important a schedule is for your child now that school has started.  I look forward to visiting with you next week!

"Twas the Night Before First Grade..."

'Twas the night before first grade and all through the school, we had new, smiling faces in our building (which is oh, so cool).  They met their new teacher, they put their things away and they wondered what to expect on that very next day.  Their teacher was THRILLED to meet her new crew. She was so excited, she didn't know WHAT to do!  She looked at the clock and said, "Time for bed!  There is so much fun in the days ahead!"

Thank you to EVERYONE for coming to Meet the Teacher night tonight!  Our class had 100% of our new friends arrive.  It was so much fun to meet your sweet kiddos tonight.  I know it is a mix of emotions as we begin something new.  First grade is where the magic happens!  Up, up and away we go...time to BLOOM!

Don't forget that tomorrow is just a half day and we release at 11:25.  We will not be having lunch.  Please let me know if your child's transportation plans will differ than their normal dismissal transportation.  Thank you, again, for coming tonight.  What an awesome way to begin our year together.  See you tomorrow!  Sweet dreams!